Suitable cam for static use at home (road side)

[Jackson67]

Hi to all, first post here. I wanted to ask if anyone in the community could give me a steer towards a suitable 2 channel dash cam to use as a static recording device. Forgoing things such as good night vision I'm starting to think I would achieve better quality results than a lot of similar priced static home security type camera setups the more i look into it.

I'm enthused by what i've seen (online) with the Starvis 2 generation cams from makes like Black Vue and Viofo but not really sure where i should be going with my needs on this. I'm not expecting number plate identification (even though vehicles approach directly towards/and then away from the cams) but I know shutter speed is important for grabbing a clear still pic when needed along with a good fps rate like 60fps from what i can gather.

My camera fixing point would be road side (outside my house) on a straight rural road with plenty of speeding vehicles and occasional disturbances so looking forward and backward with a fairly small device is a bonus too. Motion triggered recording would be all that was going on through the day I guess.
I want to leave the computer out of the setup and ideally just monitor and control the dash cam from a phone app if poss. An external power supply is going to be a definite.
Can anyone give me a steer towards an recommendations in the up to 400 Uk pounds price area that would fit well with what I've outlined, grateful for any useful suggestions (or obstacles unseen) thanks.
Sean

 

[Dashmellow]

You'll find many discussions of using dash cams as surveillance cameras in the Home Security, Surveillance Cameras, IP Cams, CCTV sub forum.

Personally, I have experimentally repurposed older unused dash cams as home security cameras and they can be used for that but they are not a good long term solution. You would be better off purchasing a dedicated IP camera or CCTV surveillance system for your stated purpose.

 

[Nigel]

I'm not expecting number plate identification (even though vehicles approach directly towards/and then away from the cams) but I know shutter speed is important for grabbing a clear still pic when needed along with a good fps rate like 60fps from what i can gather.

What is the aim of this system?
If you are not identifying cars from their plates, it is hard to see the purpose of the recordings...

For most purposes, 60 fps is not required. Starvis 2 and decent HDR is good, but it depends on the purpose of the cameras...

What about waterproofing? Most dashcams are not intended for outdoor use.

 

[kamkar]

What that guy above said

CCTV cameras can also be pretty small, well at least the little BOX cameras that like dashcams are not waterproof, but even going to a waterproof housing a CCTV camera can be very small.
Also with CCTV cameras, you can get optical zoom, either motorized or manual set, this mean you dont have to put a camera anywhere near where people might see it / get to it.
You could also get a Pinhole lens, which mean you can hide the camera and all you would be able to see of it is in a tiny hole.

Network cameras i use have their own little recorder, i have a 2 TB hard drive in mine and so have footage going back very many days with constant recording ATM just from the 1 camera aimed at my parked car.
This NVR ( Network Video Recorder ) you can usually connect to a TV, or a #2 input on your PC monitor, you can most often also connect a mouse to the NVR ( wireless maybe ) to " work " it when you have to.
Also footage from the NVR you want to save you can most often " backup " to a USB thumb drive.

Also again, if you put the NVR on a network it can send notifications to your phone or a tablet at home, and a in a NVR you can specify " tripwires " or areas of interest that would trigger a event recording and / or a notification to be sent.

My little " cheap " 4 channel NVR also have AI motion detect, so my bedside tablet only make noises when something human or vehicle shaped are near mu car, cats / dogs / badgers / rats / and what not are ignored.

Alternative there are also the many small home security cameras, these can also have a on board memory card to save on as they generally do not have a NVR to offload to.
They can also have a range of " smarter " CCTV camera features like tripwires ASO, some though just on battery, or they have a USB wire for power which can be hard to have in a remote location.

The network cameras can be powered over the network cable ( POE / Power Over Ethernet ) but otherwise might also require a 12 V power input, often in the form of a power brick provided with the camera.

 

[Jackson67]

thanks for all your input guys, points taken and being thought about, i'll unpack all points raised. many thanks.